One Tablet Per Child, Non-Profit Now Says

One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit that has been on a multi-year crusade to bring inexpensive computers to developing countries, has joined the tablet trend.

The organization and chip supplier Marvell Technology are using next week’s Consumer Electronics Show to demonstrate the XO 3.0, a tablet-style computer designed to stand up to rugged classroom use in places where sunlight is plentiful but electricity and other comforts are not.

Marvell Technology

A tablet for the developing world, with cover

OLPC was originally a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab and its co-founder, Nicholas Negroponte. The goal announced in 2005 was to deliver laptops for $100, far less than the going price for low-end portables at the time. OLPC first started mass shipments of laptops in 2007, though it failed at that time to hit its original price target.

It appears that at least one model of the XO 3.0 will. Though Marvell declines to comment on pricing, Negroponte–who has been discussing plans for a tablet since 2009–told IDG News that the new product will cost less than $100 for a model with a standard eight-inch display.